Just showing up the guys.

Generally speaking, I don't think of myself as a very competitive person. I am ambitious. I am tenacious. But I don't need to "win".

Unless I am the only girl going fishing with the guys, and then something changes.
It never fails. I have almost always been the only girl on the fishing trip. Surrounded by guys, I feel like I have to prove myself. I have to show that I deserve to be on the reservoir... Which somehow translates to, "I have to be the BEST!"

I'm not the best. I'm pretty good... for a beginner.
Today, there were four of us. Once again, I was the only girl... And once again I felt the intense desire to "show up the guys".

I laughed at myself. (What else do you do when you know you are thinking silly, but it feels so intense? I laugh.) Once I got all geared up and started fishing, I (mostly) forgot my desire. It helped that two of them were across the reservoir, so they wouldn't have known if I was catching tons of fish or not.

It was an okay (catching) day for me. I had several fish nibble on my fly. A few takes that got off, and I landed two in the hour we were out there. (We like to go fishing for a couple hours before work.) The other two guys were planning on making a day of it, so we were surprised to see them go in and load their boats up. We started towards the boat ramp to see what was up... but I wasn't done fishing yet, so although I was paddling fast and not really paying attention to my fly, I left it in the water... "Just in case a fish wants it."

We got about twenty feet from the shore, when a big old rainbow trout came up out of the water with my fly in his mouth. Flipped around, and then dove down to the bottom. I had to play him for a while. (I don't know how long. I know my arm got tired.)

On the shore, the two guys were laughing and hooting and I heard, "Way to show us all up Jen! That's awesome!"

Unfortunately, you can't tell that he is huge...

BJ caught a few. Woody caught nothing. Dave caught nothing. Jen caught a few AND the biggest fish of the day AND I did it right in front of them all.